And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
Satan stood up against Israel by tempting David and drawing him into the sinful act of numbering Israel. The temptation worked through pride, ambition, and selfishness, as David took pride in Israel's growth and prosperity, compared its strength under his rule with its former weakness, and took glory to himself. He meant the census to measure the kingdom's strength and support military expansion, fostering self-confidence in himself and the people. That course led them to rely on and trust in armies and numbers rather than God, as if strength were to be found in numbers.
The numbering displeased God and went against His command and order, for Israel's prosperity came from God's blessing rather than the king's ability or the army's strength. True strength is not in numbers but in God, who is mightier than the fallen angels that kept not their first estate. Though David confessed his sin, judgment had already been decreed in a pestilence that killed seventy thousand. Afterward David pleaded for the people and offered an altar sacrifice that God accepted to turn aside the destroying angel's sword on Ornan's threshing floor, where God answered by fire from heaven at the place where the temple was later built.
The sacrifice that turned aside the destroying angel's sword was a fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty people. To number Israel is not to work after God's order, and the Lord does not move His workers to such a course, which brings on the time of trouble before the time and builds a wall of separation between themselves and the world by advancing their own ideas and notions. Instead, God's order is earnest work for large numbers in the very cities at hand that have not been worked and have not heard the message of warning, enlightening souls with pen and voice in simple, stirring articles upon faith and love. The same selfish sin appears in every age when men seek to number Israel and count the people in order to make eternal life a monopoly and a local and national benefit that excludes the rest of God's family. Christ came to break down every wall of partition and proclaims mercy, love, and eternal life as unconfined and free to all of every nationality, tribe, and clan who receive Him as a personal Saviour.
Satan stood up against Israel by tempting David and drawing him into the sinful act of numbering Israel. The temptation worked through pride, ambition, and selfishness, as David took pride in Israel's growth and prosperity, compared its strength under his rule with its former weakness, and took glory to himself. He meant the census to measure the kingdom's strength and support military expansion, fostering self-confidence in himself and the people. That course led them to rely on and trust in armies and numbers rather than God, as if strength were to be found in numbers.
The numbering displeased God and went against His command and order, for Israel's prosperity came from God's blessing rather than the king's ability or the army's strength. True strength is not in numbers but in God, who is mightier than the fallen angels that kept not their first estate. Though David confessed his sin, judgment had already been decreed in a pestilence that killed seventy thousand. Afterward David pleaded for the people and offered an altar sacrifice that God accepted to turn aside the destroying angel's sword on Ornan's threshing floor, where God answered by fire from heaven at the place where the temple was later built.
The sacrifice that turned aside the destroying angel's sword was a fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty people. To number Israel is not to work after God's order, and the Lord does not move His workers to such a course, which brings on the time of trouble before the time and builds a wall of separation between themselves and the world by advancing their own ideas and notions. Instead, God's order is earnest work for large numbers in the very cities at hand that have not been worked and have not heard the message of warning, enlightening souls with pen and voice in simple, stirring articles upon faith and love. The same selfish sin appears in every age when men seek to number Israel and count the people in order to make eternal life a monopoly and a local and national benefit that excludes the rest of God's family. Christ came to break down every wall of partition and proclaims mercy, love, and eternal life as unconfined and free to all of every nationality, tribe, and clan who receive Him as a personal Saviour.